Fragrant remedy cleans up life

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Hillsdale.net - Hillsdale, MI

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Posted Jul. 30, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Posted Jul. 30, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Hillsdale, Mich.

Some remedies in life are worth getting behind — especially those with good scents. Having deer visit often, as if our yard is a salad smorgasbord, I’ve tried everything from “makeshift tomfoolery” to prickly gumballs and stinky sprays.

So after learning about Irish Spring soap as a deterrent for the pesky creatures, I became enthralled with the novel idea. The revelation was made known after visiting the home of dance instructor Louise Fredrick, where just about every variety of hosta exists without being encased in wire fencing.

Garden stores sell various deer deterrents, but most are topical treatments that have to be applied after each rain or even heavy dew and, generally, they’re expensive. Since many are based on smells (a popular one is coyote urine), it’s refreshing to find out that a non-appetizing, sweet smelling, rainproof thing such as Irish Spring keeps the critters at bay.

Those who recall previous deer columns will remember my tulip tomfoolery encampments that resemble nothing seen in gardening manuals.

One year, I donned my gardening gloves as if putting on army green and rolled out the chicken wire, ready to put a mini penitentiary-like fence around my emerging tulip plants.

With the help of my husband, we twisted and bent the wire in all directions, hoping to prefab some sort of encampment that wouldn’t look like a prison zone around the walkway.

I described the ordeal to a far-away friend and she envisioned rounds of chicken wire twisted around one lonely tulip struggling for its life and laughed hysterically at my efforts.

Actually, it wasn’t that bad looking, as chicken wire goes. It was neatly bent and strategically placed to match up into sections. I thought about getting a patent for the creation and moonlight as a tulip tent creator. I even came up with a name for it: the tulip tomfoolery tent. Now, I’ll have to change that to scented tomfoolery.

Upon touring Fredrick’s gorgeous flower beds filled with color, I was initially puzzled when spying the blue bars on stakes, at first thinking they were some new form of solar lighting or garden décor. A closer look revealed the Irish Spring name on each bar and I, along with others, questioned her cleanliness in the garden.

She said the deer remedy has worked for her, though recently she has found the deer may have become less disturbed by the scent as a little munching here and there has taken place among her hosta plants. As long as they don’t eat it all, she said, she can put up with it.

“I just don’t want to have to put wire around everything. because that takes away from the beauty,” she said.

I snickered to myself, recalling my five foot wire around one side of our patio that I ignore with pleasure as I envision deer longingly coveting the feast. It’s been that way since one evening I admired the healthy plant and the next morning nothing was left but stems sticking straight up.

Page 2 of 2 - I wised up, ready to stare down anything that came close by. But, deer come like thieves in the night — silent and undetected. So henceforth, the fence remains for the satisfaction of knowing that I can still outsmart Bambi and her cohorts. And, I’ll even sprinkle some shavings of Irish Spring for pleasant scents. Life is indeed sweet smelling after all!

Nancy Hastings is a staff writer for the Hillsdale Daily News. She can be contacted at nhastings@hillsdale.net.